One of the most important aspects of family financial planning is getting the rug rats through school and out of the nest. For many, that first tentative flight is when the progeny head off to college. Unless the parents want to place a second mortgage on the homestead, paying for college is going to take years of planning.

Financial advisors and stockbrokers spend millions each year on advertising aimed at these worried parents. They promise a committed, concerned professional who will guide their college savings plan each step of the way to make sure there is enough to cover the ever increasing costs of tuition and books. While not so warm or fuzzy, specialized financial planning software geared for college saving can accomplish many of the same tasks.

Basic College Planning Software

As any competent financial advisor will say, planning for college tuition should be a basic part of any family's budget starting even before the children are born. As such, any of the broad-based financial planning software suites will include provisions for setting aside money for that purpose as part of a basic budget, but they also will have specialized functions to address the question directly.

Money management software, such as Intuit Inc.'s Quicken or Microsoft Money, contain features called the "college calculator" in Quicken and the "tuition savings calculator" in Money that allow the user to enter their income and data about the state in which they live that computes how much a family needs to save each month or year to pay for college. Microsoft offers its calculator online.

Advanced College Planning Software

There is other software available that is more specialized and helps parents locate financial aid. These programs are much more expensive and can run into hundreds of dollars with yearly updates, cutting into what could be saved for college. Still, these packages provide a more complete picture of what financial resources are available to pay for college.

For example, a company called Plan Ahead Inc. offers a simple college cost calculator program for $30 that does much the same as one of the financial planning suites, but the company also offers a Financial Planner CD for the hefty price of $495 with $295 annual updates that offers extensive planning tools. With that package, parents can run through "what if" scenarios that take into account varying rates of inflation and interest rates among others.